Monday, 17 March 2014

1 year on - Loves and Hates?

Continuing on from last weeks 1 year round up of the blog stuff, I thought a 1 year progress report on the flat itself might also be good. I did a similar post at 6 months. Really all the points we love back there are the same but after a whole year there are some different things or just different perspectives.

It was warm through the winter, and cool through the summer. Being a basement it seems to keep snug in the winter with the heating on (which isn't too expensive, we had credit in the gas bill last year), but in the summer if we keep the doors and windows closed it stays cool. Awesome. There's a post here on keeping warm and saving money.

The area, I mentioned this last time but we have since found more places nearby that we love. The Daffodil restaurant is one of the best meals I've had in a long time and also a beautiful building, The Langton has a gorgeous patio for sitting out in the summer, Bath Road has amazing charity shops, The Swan has some lovely comfy sofas and do nice pies, there are lots of walks and outside activities around within a walking distance or short bus ride. There are also so many choices for things to do that we sometimes get a bit confused by all the options, the Town Hall does some really good comedy, music, wedding fairs etc and there are numerous festivals on through the year from food to literature, and it's all within walking distance!

This kind of comes in with the area, but the lifestyle here is a vast improvement on what we had before. The novelty hasn't worn off for me yet of where we live. Even with Gold Cup last week, which means the town is packed for a week with race goers. I feel really blessed sometimes to be living here, it might be because I wasn't raised here and that my home town has kind of gone a bit downhill (don't lynch me please people, you can't deny it), or was never really up the metaphorical hill in the first place, so I can see the difference and don't take it for granted. I walk around grinning to myself when I go on walks within a few miles of home for panoramic views over Cheltenham and the surrounding countryside, or when I walk through Pittville Park, or Tivoli, or Montpellier, or The Promenade. It really doesn't compare to where we have lived before, or where we will probably live again. I understand though that everywhere has less attractive areas, and I know Cheltenham definitely does, and I'm not kidding myself that I'm posh now!

The price. Since living in Cheltenham for a year I've realised the rent is pretty reasonable. We could definitely be paying less, but then wouldn't have a garden or it would be a smaller one bedroom flat. We could also definitely be paying more if we were in a more desirable location like Bath Road, Tivoli or Pittville, but we have all these areas within walking distance.

The rest were all covered in the 6 months post, but we still love all those points. The location, size, garden, landlords (well we don't love them like that but they seem nice, and are good at dealing with things quickly and efficiently), that it's painted white not magnolia (1 year in still can't get over that), quality of the finish, the money saving features and the period features.

Next up is things we miss or we don't love so much, there aren't many! Really this is home now, it's probably the most attached I've ever been to a rented place. Usually there is something wrong and I get itchy feet after a year or two and want to move. However here I don't want to move and actually will be sad when it comes time to buy somewhere and move (probably out of town because we can't afford it) to our first house.